Trio summoned to plug injury and call-up gaps

LLANELLI have had to permit in a trio of players to cope with injuries and regional call ups for the visit of Neath.

Six of Anthony Buchanan's players will be involved in the Scarlets match in Connacht tonight, while neither lock Nathan White or prop Shaun Hopkins are fit enough to feature against the Blacks.

Prop Ceri Jones arrives from Tonmawr, lock David Vaughn joins from Llandovery and scrum-half Richard Lane has made the temporary switch from Llangennech.

Llanelli will look to bounce back from last Saturday's disastrous draw against Aberavon when they let a 32-3 lead slip.

"I'm disappointed we conceded 10 penalties to one in the second half. We've got to address that and look at the disciplinary situation," said head of rugby Buchanan, who saw Ian Jones and Tavis Knoyle yellow carded in the second half.

Carded

"There's no doubt the two they had yellow-carded in the first half gave us an advantage, while the two we had binned in the second half gave them an advantage.

"We changed things in the second half and losing our scrum-half took away our momentum."

Neath are poised to make four changes to the side which lost to Cardiff last Sunday.

Behind the scrum, wingers Kevin James and top points-scorer Gareth McCarthy are restored, while the pack is reinforced by the return of Martin Jones and Euros Evans. Hooker Gerwyn Price is named on the bench for the first time following his recovery from a knee operation.

Meanwhile, strong-running centre Stephen Thomas becomes the 10th Neath player to reach 100 appearances in the semi-professional era.

He joins Gareth Morris, Kevin James, Wayne Mitchell, Paul Jones, Andy Littlehales, Wales call-up Craig Mitchell, Andrew Howell and Andy Llewellyn and John McPhail.

"We were, to say the least, bitterly disappointed by aspects of our game against Cardiff although the television audience will no doubt have enjoyed the eight-try thriller," said Neath head coach Patrick Horgan.

"Llanelli, like Cardiff, are a very good, clinical side and we face another big challenge.

"Although they have suffered some regional call-ups, these were known early enough in the week for them to prepare very thoroughly for us and we expect another full-on West Wales derby. They have a solid pack, a good young back-row and some promising backs.

"It will be a good test of our credentials and we must rediscover ourselves."

NEATH: G. King; K. James, S. Thomas, N. Brew, K. Phillips; G. McCarthy, K. Farrell; A. V. Lott, A. James, M. Jones; E. Evans, N. Edwards; M. Collins, G. Gravell, A. Whitney. Reps: K. Morgan/A. Jenkins, A. Thomas, T. James, J. Reeves, G. Price, L. Evans, C. Price.

LLANELLI: D. Ford; J. Howells, N. Reynolds, S. Williams, A. Fenby; L. Richards, J. James; I. Jones, C. Hawkins (capt), A. Hopkins, A. Powell, R. McCusker, A. Brake, B. Morgan N. Cudd. Reps: C. Jones, R. Lawrence, D. Vaughn, D. Eager, R. lane, S. Martin.